Juliet knew she could really hurt Flavius.

She knew on a very deep level that she shouldn’t be that harsh with him. Instead, she should have maybe even praised the guy for managing to turn into a not-so-useless fighter. But she was in a bad mood after being cut-off from Jacob for multiple days. And someone had to be on the receiving end of her bad mood.

“Woah, there, McGrill, you are a bit too fired up for my standards. I like to take things slow!”

Flavius words were half-chewed and sloshed, but his movements were so fluid that not even her golden flames had managed to pin him down yet.

To avoid killing him on the spot, Juliet was using only a fraction of her power, but she was still surprised that he hadn’t gotten some third-degree burns on his impertinent tongue.

“Look, perfectly balanced!” the man said while holding what looked like the crane stance but with a foot constantly falling to the ground while he risked falling.

Juliet crouched down and then shot at him with such speed that she feared she would turn him into paste if he took the blow directly.

And, as if Flavius could read her mind, for the first time since they had begun, he didn’t move.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, let me show you a really neat trick!”

He thrusted his hands forwards, apparently not fazed by the flames that were covering most of Juliet’s body.

And what happened next Juliet would always remember as the first time Flavius had ever amazed her.

The young man’s hands started shining, one black and one white. She saw a vision of two figures behind the inept med student, a tiger and a dragon, clashing in perfect equilibrium.

Yin-Yang Martial Style, First Stance, Inertia

One moment, she was was sprinting, the other she found herself staring at the bright sky while her lung had been completely emptied of her. Flavius had slammed her on the ground the same force she had put behind her sprint, and was now looking at her triumphantly.

“And so, the winner is—”

The man was abruptly cut off by his stomach deciding to not comply anymore with the outrageous amount of alcohol he had imbibed.

The second thing she would never forget about Flavius was the time that idiot had puked his breakfast and lunch over her after the sparring.

…

“I’m so, so, so, so, so sorry, Juliet. You can kill me if you wish,” Flavius made a pause to start vomiting once again.

“Sure, we’ll have time for that,” the girl said. It had taken more than one jump in the nearest shower to clean-up and she had found Flavius still vomiting his stomach out.

“But you did something that I wasn’t expecting. That move shouldn’t have been able to put me down, Flavius. I was running with enough strength to split a Demonic Wolf at the Early Stage of the Mantis Realm. You are a loser and at the Cockroach Realm. So, how did you do it?”

Flavius had sadly sobered up quite a bit and couldn’t really find a witty response while the beautiful girl stared at him in his pathetic condition.

“Can’t we talk later?” Flavius was still retching, this time more saliva than anything else.

“Oh no. Later I’m caving your skull with a punch. Now, instead, you are going to tell me whatever you have discovered before I make you spill your guts in that bucket.”

Flavius had gone home, but since the various plumbing didn’t really work anymore, he couldn’t use the wc. So, a bucket was the best choice.

“I don’t know…” he retched again, “I figured that… if I dropped my inhibitions, I would sink deep enough into this…”

Flavius vomited some bile.

“… this cultivation thing to start understanding what I was lacking. And… it worked, didn’t it?”

He gave Juliet a pale smile and a wink.

“So, you piece of shit got drunk because you thought it would make you more relaxed and in tune with your Cultivation Technique and Style. You truly are a piece of work,” she didn’t laugh. “Then you come all drunk to a sixteen years old girl and slam her on the ground. All of this peppering your sudden sparring session with lewd comments and inappropriate remarks.”

Flavius put half of his head in the bucket, this time clearly faking another retching.

“Man, I’m so sick… you should probably leave me alone before I spill more vomit everywhere, bleurgh, bleurgh.”

Flavius felt a hand on his hair and smiled thinking that maybe Juliet was finally feeling some pity for him.

“Listen, Flavius,” she said yanking his head back from his hair.

And she was pulling with quite some strength. Flavius already feared he would be bald by the time he was done listening.

“Your idea was good. Like, really good. But you do that shit with me another time and I’ll castrate you, okay?”

Flavius nodded frantically.

“Good. You gave me a good fight and you might have potential. But try something like that ever again and I’m killing you right there and then. Am I clear?”

“To be fair, I just said you are cute and beautiful I didn’t really. I mean, maybe I was exaggerating a bit, but it was mostly teasing and—”

When Juliet heard those compliments, her ears flared red and she blushed. So, she dealt with the incoming emotions the best way she knew. She punched Flavius out cold, leaving him on the floor of his apartment to sleep off the hangover.

As she was going out, she spotted his mother and told her to call Andrew. Flavius was probably going to need some healing for his broken nose.